Burning Your Boats
(Collected Short Stories)

by Angela Carter

This collection brings together majority of Carter's short fiction, and all of it shines with her unique genius. It contains the following:

Early Work, 1962-6

The Man Who Loved a Double Bass
A man's doting relationship with his double bass leads to a poignant double tragedy.
A Very, Very Great Lady and Her Son at Home
A mother tells her son the story of her life, and with it, reveals a secret that proves her downfall and sets him free.
A Victorian Fable (with Glossary)
A tale told entirely in Victorian slang; a drunken man beats up a woman in the street and then runs off to a whorehouse.

Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces, 1974

A Souvenir of Japan
A lucid vision of Japan through the eyes of a woman in an ever diminishing relationship.
The Executioner's Beautiful Daughter
In a degenerate tribe where incest is a capital offence, an executioner is called upon to kill his only son, for a crime his executioner's mask allows him to commit with impunity.
The Loves of Lady Purple
The tale of a sensuous lifesize female puppet who tours the world, holding everyone in a rapture, and how her desire for life will overcome even the one who loves her most.
The Smile of Winter
A woman's epiphany on a beach in winter.
Penetrating to the Heart of the Forest
A brother and sister grow up in a veritable paradise, yet always the mystery of the forest goads them into its depths, and towards the mysterious forbidden tree at its centre; with its ripe mysterious fruit.
Flesh and the Mirror
A woman searches for a lost love through the complex streets of Tokyo, and in the mirror covered bedrooms of the pleasure quarters, determined to either find him or recreate him in the act of searching.
Master
Sold to a vicious hunter, a village girl is drawn into his world of desolation and cruelty as he takes her on a hunting trip into the forest; but all the while she is undergoing a mental and physical transformation which threatens to tip the balance.
Reflections
A man who by the discovery of a shell stumbles onto the nexus of the world of the mirror and our own, where a strange figure knits reality together, and by his actions brings about a great catastrophe.
Elegy for a Freelance
A woman remembers a claustraphobic moment of her life, living in a room with a group of anarchists and her assassin boyfriend, waiting for the moment when he is to carry out the assassination; but even the best laid plans can suffer complications, and doubt and greed get in the way of this one.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, 1979

The Bloody Chamber
A girl newly married to a mysterious Marquis is left with the keys to their mansion, yet one small room is forbidden to her, and she is naturally drawn to it. Within the room she finds the Marquis' dark secret and a hint at the fate in store for her.
The Courtship of Mr Lyon
A car breaks down leaving a man stranded, he finds shelter in a mansion where he is offered a great hospitality in the home of the Beast, though upon leaving steals an insignificant thing for his daughter Beauty. There is of course a price, but as ever, Beauty offers the Beast the ultimate reconciliation.
The Tiger's Bride
A father loses his daughter in a game of cards to the Beast. The Beast offers her freedom for a glimpse of her, but to his shame she repeatedly refuses. After a time a compromise is reached and through it the woman finds both her freedom and her true nature.
Puss-in-Boots
A loyal cat finds his philandering master has finally fallen in love, and it is up to him to bring the relationship to consumation. Fortunately the cat is a crafty creature and comes up with several schemes to make things come to pass, finding contentment of his own along the way.
The Erl-King
A young girl finds a mysterious figure whose realm is that of the forests and whose treasures are found solely in the shapes of nature, he is the spirit of the place, though at his hands she would be transformed and it is something she can not allow.
The Snow Child
On a horseride a count wishes for a girl and so she appears, though his wife, a jealous woman, would see her undone. So the girl returns to the snow and the count finds his empty satisfaction.
The Lady of the House of Love
A lonely vampiress resides in a great castle, filled with a great longing for fresh meat, one regularly forfilled. Then a young soldier enters her life and she begins a short lived cycle of seduction that ends differently to how she planned it.
The Werewolf
A visit to grandmother takes a unique turn when a girl meets a wolf in the wood.
The Company of Wolves
Wolf-Alice

Black Venus, 1985

Black Venus
The Kiss
Our Lady of the Massacre
The Cabinet of Edgar Allen Poe
Overture and Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream
Peter and the Wolf
The Kitchen Child
The Fall River Axe Murders

American Ghosts & Old World Wonders, 1993

Lizzie's Tiger
John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Gun for the Devil
The Merchant of Shadows
The Ghost Ships
In Pantoland
Ashputtle or The Mother's Ghost
Alice in Prague or The Curious Room
Impressions: The Wrightsman Magdalene

Uncollected Stories, 1970-81

The Scarlet House
A woman, captured and imprisoned in the Scarlet House by a master of Chaos, finds herself threatened by a multitude of invented memories.
The Snow Pavilion
The Quilt Maker

Bibliographical Information

Appendix: Uncollected Fiction by Angela Carter

Burning Your Boats features most of Angela Carter's short fiction though I have discovered there is at least one uncollected work, if you know of any others then please contact me.

Lands of Never - Maxim Jakubowski (ed.)

The Bridegroom

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